On the news of Abrams’s return, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said:

“With The Force Awakens, JJ delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy.”

The swift change of director comes following the mutual decision to have Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow depart the project. A similar situation occured recently with Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard replacing Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as the director of the upcoming Han Solo prequel.

Star Wars: Episode IX is scheduled for release on May 24th 2019.

EDIT: It has now been confirmed that filming for Episode IX will begin next June with the release date pushed back to 20th December 2019.